Transnationally relocated? Sex selection among Punjabis in Canada

ABSTRACT

This exploration of the dynamics of son preference and daughter aversion among Punjabis in Canada uses interviews and a survey to augment voices across different generations of Punjabi women and men in Brampton, Ontario. Hierarchies of age, gender, patriarchal control and strong transnational kin ties intersect in allowing older generation immigrants to exert stronger influence on factors underlying son preference and daughter aversion in a context of socio-economic and cultural discrimination against Punjabis. Young Punjabi women and men are challenging unequal gender norms within the Punjabi community even as they create their own sub-culture appropriating Punjabi and wider Canadian cultures.

RÉSUMÉ

Cette exploration de la dynamique de la préférence pour les garçons et de l’aversion envers les filles chez les Pendjabi canadiens s’appuie sur des entrevues et un sondage dans le but d’attirer l’attention sur la voix des différentes générations de femmes et d’hommes pendjabis de Brampton en Ontario. Les hiérarchies liées à l’âge, au sexe et au contrôle patriarcal, ainsi que de forts liens de parenté transnationaux se recoupent, permettant aux immigrants plus âgés d’exercer une plus grande influence sur les facteurs sous-jacents à la préférence pour les garçons et l’aversion pour les filles dans un contexte de discrimination socio-économique contre les Pendjabis. Les plus jeunes générations, cependant, remettent en question les normes sociales inégalitaires au sein de leur communauté en s’appropriant des éléments de la culture pendjabie et de la culture canadienne majoritaire pour créer leur propre sous-culture.

KEYWORDS:

• Sex selection
• Punjabi diaspora
• daughter discrimination
• son preference
• Canada

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Ashna Jassi, Mandeep Kaur Mucina, Sara Laflamme and Samantha Postulart for their comments, to research assistants and to respondents. Thanks also to anonymous reviewers for useful comments.

Notes on contributor

Sharada Srinivasan is an associate professor of international development studies and Canada Research Chair in Gender, Justice and Development at the University of Guelph.

Notes

1 Punjab is the birthplace of Sikhism, followed by nearly 60 per cent of the state’s population. This article uses the terms Punjabis and Sikhs interchangeably.

2 The expected sex ratio at birth is around 105 male live births for every 100 female live births. See Srinivasan and Bedi (2008) on how this is arrived at.

3 The long-form census is a compulsory detailed questionnaire completed by one-third of Canadian households as part of the census every five years (The Star 2015).

4 “India has been the top source country for spouses and partners since 2008” in Canada (CIC 2012, 4).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in 2012–2015 by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada, under Grant number 430-2012-410.